


Marvel At It

by MetamorphicRocky



Series: Dadspeed [3]
Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: Dadspeed, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, y'all I am literally still reeling over all of the good dadspeed content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-29 23:37:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20444471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MetamorphicRocky/pseuds/MetamorphicRocky
Summary: Little Cato has some trouble sleeping, so Gary decided that a movie night is a great way to help the kid rest.





	Marvel At It

After a long day of running errands and doing maintenance on the ship, Gary tosses his jacket at the chair in his room haphazardly. He quickly rips his shirt off, hissing at the slight pull on his fresh scars and the tightness in his muscles from pretty intense labor. He kicks off his boots as he undoes his belt, then he slips out of his jeans.

He really needs a shower, but screw it. It can wait until after he wakes up. Gary snatches his pair of pajama pants from the floor because this ship just cannot get warm and puts them on. Oh, the softness of the new pants makes him even sleepier than he was before. His bed sounds _so nice_ right now.

Without hesitation, Gary sluggishly climbs up the ladder to his bed and promptly collapses, his head hitting the pillow with a content sigh. He's going to be surprised if he wakes up at any time before ten. 

The blond slides underneath the sheets and closes his eyes, ready for a much needed—

Quiet footsteps can be heard outside of Gary's room. It sounds like someone shuffling nervously in front of his door, and Gary really does not want to deal with people right now. Can't it wait until he's not dead tired?

So, he ignores it. Tries to forget that it's even there. His eyes close, the sound being ignored. Gary begins to drift off to sleep, nuzzling his head into his pillow and—

A knock. At the door. Gary's eyes shoot open as he groans into his pillow. It was quiet though, so maybe whoever it is will go away? Maybe it was an accidental knock? A second knock, louder and more certain than the previous one. Well, crap. Now he can't ignore it.

Gary sits up, ready to tell the person to go away so that he can sleep when the person at the door whispers, "Gary?"

Oh shit. The man flings himself off of his bed, his tiredness nearly forgotten if it isn't for the way he sways as he tries to rush to the door. Gary shuffles over to it, slapping the button on the wall, opening the door.

"Hey, buddy. What's up?" Gary asks with a rough yet inviting voice, looking down at Little Cato.

The kid's fur is matted down in certain spots, his mohawk an absolute mess in the worst case of bedhead Gary has ever seen. The poor boy is swimming in a pink shirt that he had to borrow from Ash—and he really means swimming, Little Cato's shorts cannot be seen underneath it—after his clothes got ruined earlier in the day, and Gary doesn't know why it's so big on him when Ash isn't that much taller than the Ventrexian. But Gary has to admit that it's absolutely adorable, making the kid look much younger than his fourteen years from both that and his tired, messy appearance.

Little Cato rings his hands together, refusing to lift his head from where he's currently staring at Gary's stomach. "I'm sorry, you were sleeping so I can just—"

"—go away and be sad by myself?" Gary finishes sarcastically. His kid winces at the callout.

Gary sighs as he kneels down in front of Little Cato. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Now tell Gary what's going on, or I'm carrying you like a sack of potatoes to your bed."

Gary uses his flesh hand to tilt the boy's head upwards, finally allowing them to make eye contact. He looks upset, almost on the verge of tears as he nervously bites his bottom lip. Little Cato's soft hands grab onto Gary's fingers as he pulls them away from the boy's chin, and he fiddles with them to avoid answering the question for a moment longer.

"Can't sleep," he admits quietly, like it's some sort of curse that shouldn't be heard.

Well, Gary might pass out from exhaustion at any moment, so this will be a very quick comfort session. Distraction and making the kid fall asleep it is. 

Gary stands back up with a grunt. Geez, he isn't even that old, shouldn't this wait another decade? Well, now that he's thinking about it, being a parent probably is not helping the stress on his still healing body. 

"Go get every blanket and pillow you can, we're making a fort in front of the TV. While you gather the supplies for what is going to be the best pillow fort in all of existence, I am making us hot chocolate. Sound good, Spidercat?" Gary says cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood.

The kid nods and runs off, so Gary heads to the kitchen. This is the moment where Gary is very thankful that he knows the random information of how to make hot chocolate from scratch because otherwise, this would be an absolute disaster. Since hot chocolate is an earth thing, and definitely is not on this ship. As the new father quickly puts together the mix into a kettle, he fondly listens to Little Cato's bare feet running around the ship back and forth in his quest. And he can't help but just be glad that the kid is finally approaching him without worry. Well, there's still some hesitation, but it'll be better soon.

He hopes.

Gary turns the stove off and fills their ridiculous matching mugs—with the ugliest drawing of a fish Gary has ever seen that just says "habpy to sea u" because yes, the misspelling and terrible fish made them lose it so much in the store that they almost got kicked out—they bought while stopping for supplies the other day. He tops it off with some whipped cream and sprinkles because damn it if he's going to make comfort hot chocolate, he has to do it right!

He carefully brings the two mugs into the TV room and sets them down on the side table. Gary stands next to his son who is just staring down the blankets with intense focus, his fingers to his chin in thought. 

"You didn't want to at least start setting it up?" Gary asks.

Little Cato rubs the back of his neck, his ears shrinking down onto his head as he laughs nervously. "I, um–I've never...done this before?" he trails off uncertainly.

Gary gasps, grabbing at his chest in pain. "What?! Okay, no, I am so glad that I am a _genius_ because I cannot allow my son to continue on without ever making a CASTLE out of pillows and blankets. Buddy, prepare to have your whole world rocked."

Gary grabs as many chairs as he can carry and gives orders to the kid on where the chairs should go, how to lay out the blankets right, and the optimal pillow positions. After about fifteen minutes of intense pillow forting, their masterpiece is complete.

"There. How's it look, bud?" Gary asks, surveying the absolutely massive fort before him. 

"It looks sick! Can I jump in it?" Little Cato is bouncing up and down in anticipation to get inside. 

Gary ruffles his hair and nods. He uses his newly discovered dad reflexes, as Little Cato likes to call them, to whip out his phone and hit record to catch a video of the kid running and jumping straight into the nest of pillows. Little Cato lands with a soft thud and rolls around in it, laughing the whole time. Gary smiles, and he laughs as Little Cato turns himself into a burrito using a blanket.

Gary turns off his phone and slips underneath the small entrance to the fort to join his kid, grabbing their hot chocolates on the way. Little Cato unravels himself to share the blanket, taking his now lukewarm hot chocolate to take a big chunk out of the whipped cream. 

"It's nice in here," Little Cato says, shifting closer to his dad. "How have I never done this before?"

"I have no idea, but it's a crime that has now been remedied." Gary wraps his arm around his kid, bringing him even closer and wrapping the blanket around them both tightly. "Now, what movie do you wanna watch?"

He shrugs, licking at the whipped cream and trying to get every single sprinkle. "You can pick, but it's gotta have action. A lot. Like explosions and guns and everything!"

Little Cato makes an explosion noise, throwing his arms out and accidentally hitting Gary in the face in the process. They both laugh, but Gary can't possibly let the kid get away without revenge. So he puts the kid in a headlock and ruffles his hair intensely.

His boy shouts in protest, even though he's snickering, and he starts wriggling to get out of the hold. "Dad, come on," Little Cato laughs. "Stop it!"

"Am I ruining your mane, little man? Because it was already a mess, hate to tell you," Gary teases, but he lets goes of him with one final noogie.

The little rascal doesn't even try to fix his hair once Gary lets go of him, he just smiles up at Gary as he starts scrolling through the movies available.

"Gimme a joke. The dad ones that Nightfall hates," Little Cato says.

"Okay, wanna hear a joke about construction?" Little Cato nods excitedly. "Well, I'm still working on it!" Gary delivers enthusiastically.

The kid immediately dissolves into a pile of giggles, hiding his face against Gary's side which only means that the blond can feel how hard the kid is laughing. Gary smiles fondly as he continues to scroll, his kid failing to calm down next to him. Despite Little Cato saying his first dad joke was lame, the kid has asked him for one at least three times a day. 

"Oh hell yeah, you ever seen Iron Man?" Gary asks as he stumbles across the title. 

Little Cato is still laughing, but he tries to respond anyways, "Never heard of it."

Oh, Gary is really gonna have to teach this kid about all the classics soon. He can't stand to think of his son having lived fourteen years and not knowing about Marvel.

"Oh, you're gonna love it. It's a superhero movie with a ton of action, sound good to you?"

The boy nods, so Gary hits play. 

The two of them get comfortable as the movie starts, and the moment that Tony's car gets blown up, Little Cato gets hooked. He's annoyed that they had to go and show backstory, but he waits patiently.

Until the scene where Tony hooks up with the reporter, and Gary definitely covers the kid's eyes as Little Cato says, "Ewww." It makes Gary laugh.

They keep watching, and Gary can see Little Cato begin to doze off during the boring beginning, but the moment it goes back to when Tony got hit with shrapnel, his kid is wide awake and ready to watch. 

The poor boy loves Yinsen, and Gary can't do anything except watch his heart get broken. But it's okay in the end since he gets really excited when he sees the suit in action. So excited that he leans forward and away from Gary, sitting with his legs crossed, his chin resting on his hands. 

The blond stretches out his back and lays down with a content sigh. At this point, he stops watching the movie that he's seen a bunch of times and instead watches his boy, who he's also seen a lot, but watching Little Cato is so much better than the movie. The movie never changes no matter how many times he watches it, but Little Cato? The kid is constantly changing and growing as he experiences more things, and Gary loves seeing how he grows every day. The star-struck look in his eyes as he sees Tony build the kickass first suit makes Gary's heart clench. 

So, warm and content, focused on his son's entertaining commentary about the movie, Gary drifts off to sleep in a pillow fort.

* * *

"Gary! He just saved all of these people, and he did the cool walk away from an explosion thing?! This movie is so awe—"

Little Cato turns around, only to cut himself off when he sees the man behind him, laying on his side and absolutely passed out asleep. He smiles, then grabs the remote to pause the movie. They can finish it tomorrow when Gary is awake.

Little Cato drinks the rest of Gary's hot chocolate, which is not hot anymore, and puts their mugs to the side. He carefully lays down next to him to avoid waking him up, and the kid gently adjusts the blanket so it covers them both. Little Cato cuddles up to Gary ever so quietly, a smile on his face as he closes his eyes.

"Night, Dad," he whispers. "Love you."

With that, Little Cato joins his dad in much needed rest.

**Author's Note:**

> I AM STILL DYING OVER DADSPEED. I don't think I can physically stop, I'm kinda worried. But it'll be okay.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed these fluffy fics!!! I don't write fluff often but these have been very fun.
> 
> always ready to yell on my tumblr


End file.
